Police Union Director Indicted For Importing And Distributing Cop-Killing Fentanyl

Nothing kills cops like fentanyl. I mean, I don’t think it’s actually killed any cops yet, but any cop in the general vicinity of it acts like they’re dying and heads off the ER, surrounded by enablers, cop shop PR staff, and journalists willing to act as stenographers.

To be sure, this opioid is killing people. But they’re actually ingesting the drug, rather than hanging out near it or just using it as a topic of conversation. While cops go into overdrive with breathless recounting of panic attacks, the DEA (and their enablers in the halls of Congress) are extending the inadvertently hilarious narrative with ridiculous claims that multi-colored fentanyl pills are meant to lure children, rather than just being an easy way to differentiate products and potency.

Given the danger this drug presents to law enforcement officers (and, yeah, I guess the people they serve [trails off]), you’d think someone heavily invested in law enforcement infrastructure might steer clear of this particular death-bringer.

You’d think that. But you’d be wrong. A person who’s spent two decades (presumably) getting bad cops reinstated and otherwise battling accountability efforts has just been indicted on fentanyl trafficking charges.

The executive director of a police union in California has been placed on leave and is facing federal charges after allegedly importing drugs from overseas and distributing them throughout the country.

Joanne Marian Segovia, 64, ordered thousands of synthetic opioids including valeryl fentanyl that were disguised as chocolates, wedding favors and makeup, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday by the Office of the United States Attorney.

Segovia, who serves as the executive director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association (SJPOA), allegedly used her personal and office computers to order the opioids and made shipments using the union’s UPS account, the complaint said.

The complaint [PDF] (which CNN couldn’t be bothered to include with its coverage) is filled with all sorts of juicy (and, often, incredibly funny) details. According to the complaint, the union director received more than 4,000 pills and at least another five kilos of assorted drugs between July 2019 and January 2023. And that’s only counting what federal agents intercepted, opened, and tabulated (it’s [maybe] a pun!), before allowing them to continue on to Segovia’s address.

Federal officers (the CBP, in this case) also had records indicating Segovia had received 61 shipments from foreign countries, including Canada, China, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, and Singapore. According to the feds, the fentanyl and other controlled substances were shipped under assumed (product) names:

The packages were manifested as “Wedding Party Favors,” “Shirts Tops,” “Gift Makeup,”“Chocolate and Sweets,” “Food Supplement,” “Health Product,” and “Supplement.”

The union boss voluntarily agreed to speak to Homeland Security Investigations agents twice. In the first interview, she claimed she wouldn’t even know how to order drugs online and “had no idea” why her name and address had been found on an arrested drug trafficker’s phone. She also refused to allow agents to view her CashApp transactions.

In the second interview, Segovia changed tack. This time she blamed all the shipments on “a family friend and housekeeper,” someone she portrayed as a regular drug abuser. She also claimed the CashApp transactions were payments to this same person for housekeeping. She also claimed she did not want to “throw” this supposed friend “to the wolves.” But she clearly did want to do that. Fortunately for the friend and housekeeper, there was too much evidence tying the union director to fentanyl d/b/a “Chocolate and Sweets.”

One seized package, allegedly sent by Segovia to another alleged trafficker in South Carolina, used the police union’s address as the address of origin.

Then there’s this, which violates pretty much every rule of OPSEC 101, apparently all because (as Molly Conger wryly surmised) the union boss had no idea how to take a snapshot.

In June 2021, in the INDIA CHAT, an image (below) was sent from SEGOVIA’s account depicting an HP computer monitor that showed a PayPal receipt in the amount of $999.99, sent to an entity with an apparent Indian name. Several items are visible in the area in front of the monitor, including a San Jose Police Officers’ Association letter opener with a business card containing SEGOVIA’s name and notes containing apparent POA-related codes.

Oh yeah. Dig the business card with visible badge located under the right side of the monitor. Enjoy also the apparent list of union codes under the left side, alas far too tiny to be legible.

Just doing this out in the open:

A review of SEGOVIA’s iPhone revealed emails between SEGOVIA and another individual, dated March 21, 2023, with the subject line: “Hey joanne order for your orange.” They discussed payment and dispatching CashApp money or pills to KH. SEGOVIA’s signature line included a reference to her as “Executive Director” of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association.

The unsurprising conclusion is spelled out in the complaint, which is far more Clouseau than Holmes:

Based on my training and experience, I believe that SEGOVIA was using a computer at her home, and another at her office, to pay for shipments of controlled substances.

You think?

Anyway, there’s a lot in the complaint, which only runs 13 pages but is loaded with plenty of damning details. Cops talk a lot about how dealers and buyers used coded language to disguise the true nature of drug-related conversations. Apparently, the recently removed police union director has never heard of this. Either that or she thought (1) her communications with foreign drug traffickers would never be seen or (more likely) (2) she would never be suspected of trafficking drugs.

I mean:

July 4, 2022: “Im going to put whats app on my computer so I’ll have it if something weird goes on with my phone. So i need to send you $900 for the orange pills that are on their way, are they on their way??

September 12, 2022: “Yes, i got the 500 mg soma. I also got 180 of the orange pills.”

And there’s this interesting tidbit on trafficking subterfuge that surprised even the experienced HSI investigator:

The seized parcel originated from an address in China on March 10, 2023 and declared its contents as “CLOCK.” It was addressed to SEGOVIA’s home. Inside the parcel was a disassembled clock kit containing square and round white adhesive stickers or patches on which the fentanyl-related substance was found. (I have not seen drugs sent in this form before.)

And that’s apparently what it takes to be kicked out of the police union… I mean, at least as an executive. (Drug-dealing cops are presumably fine until fired from the police force, when and [especially] if that happens. And they’ll only remain ejected from the union if the union can’t get them rehired. Like any other business, police unions hate to lose paying customers.) The SJ Police Officers Association says Segovia has been “cut off from all access” to the union.

Given the substance forming the source of these allegations, it’s surprising the criminal complaint didn’t end with: NO OFFICERS WERE HARMED DURING THE COURSE OF THIS INVESTIGATION. But it’s clear at least one top cop rep knows fentanyl is perfectly safe to handle (repeatedly), even if those who don’t handle it for fun and profit will never believe it.